ROCCAT shut down G2 Esports' hopes of taking first place in Group A after a 2-1 victory on Thursday over the former kings of Europe to kick off Week 10 of the European League of Legends Championship Series.

Editor's Picks

The 2017 League of Legends Hub is your stop for all the information you need about the League of Legends World Championships. You'll find stats, standings, results, recaps and more, all in one place.

G2 Esports had been holding onto the faintest whisper of hope as it came into this week, as there was a potential route to the top of the group, even if it unlikely. The route that required it to not drop a single game all week while seeing Fnatic lose its final two games has been completely shut off after this loss, however. The improbable became impossible a half hour into G2's match against ROCCAT, however, as ROCCAT came back from a slow early game to smash G2 on the back of an unreal performance on Kalista by its ADC, Petter "Hjarnan" Freyschuss. Now G2 Esports is locked into second place in Group A, while Fnatic are guaranteed to come out of the group stage as the top seed.

What should be most concerning for G2, however, isn't the fact that it's now locked into the second seed, it's how it got there. Despite having pressure and gold advantages in all three games, G2 only managed to convert one of them into a victory. The story played out similarly in both Games 1 and 3, as G2 squandered early leads to the superior teamfighting and shotcalling of ROCCAT. Considering G2 has long been known as the best late game team in the EU LCS while ROCCAT is, typically, and early-game team, this reversal of fortune should come as troubling for G2, who will be facing much more stiff competition in the playoffs. If G2 Esports can't even convert games where it gets the early game advantage, it's hard to imagine how it'll manage to trump Fnatic, who seems primed to outperform G2 at every stage of the game as it stands.

The Player of the Series was ROCCAT AD carry Hjarnan. He certainly didn't win the series on his own -- much noise was made about support Kim "Wadid" Bae-in's choice to only play champions that could build an early Ardent Censor -- but so many of the clutch plays that got ROCCAT the win came from Hjarnan that it's impossible to highlight any other player. His Kalista play in Game 1 was specifically outstanding, as he frustrated every attempt that G2 made to lock him down, which was integral to his team's victory -- especially since he was, in theory, outscaled by his opposite number fairly early on in the game.

Sponsored Headlines

Comments

ABOUT COOKIES

We use cookies to help make this website better, to improve our services and for advertising purposes. You can learn more about our use of cookies and change your browser settings in order to avoid cookies by clicking here. Otherwise, we'll assume you are OK to continue.